Landmark Buildings and Places

Unique buildings and spaces are associated with communities, visually defining them for residents and
visitors alike. They make towns and cities great and reinforce individual and community identity and pride.
They are the visual expression of what might be described as the soul of the community, which is the sum
total of all of the works, aspirations and dreams of its citizens. Towns and cities grows through time,
and buildings and neighbourhoods reflect cycles of boom and bust. They also represent architectural styles
and periods.

The earliest representatives of historic buildings in Albertan communities have their origins in the boom
period from early settlement at the end of the 19th century to the coming of World War I in 1914. Survivors
of these the red-brick buildings of those original main streets can be seen in not only Calgary and Edmonton,
the largest cities, but also in cities and towns around the province.

Alberta, like other Canadian provinces, owes much of its building stock to boom times. Based on some
economic activity or other (for example, farming, ranching, mining or manufacturing), communities seemed to
develop overnight. The buildings housed both public and private activities and, while largely functional in
design, also aspired to make a statement as to the social standing of the occupant. Early on, there was a
strong sense of the need for public buildings and spaces that would suggest the kind of infrastructure that
those community builders aspired to.

From the beginning, entrepreneurs came from eastern Canada, the United States and Europe and wished to
recreate a Pittsburgh, Toronto, Minneapolis or other centre of commerce and manufacturing in the Great Plains.
In fact, the write-ups in newspapers and promotional brochures sound surprisingly modern resembling the products
of chambers of commerce or government promotional literature. Perhaps, the largeness of the territory lent
itself to exaggeration.

While the design elements for domestic and public buildings are largely derivative, there are some buildings
that are icons of prairie architecture. Among these are the grain elevators. While these were plentiful until
the 1980s, with some communities having more than a dozen along the railway line, they are now endangered and
their preservation is a challenge for local communities.

Other unique Albertan buildings are the churches that are found in every community. The Ukrainian Block
Settlement, which began in the 1890s, resulted in the building of many churches with the characteristic onion
domes. Important examples have been preserved at the
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village but also in communities throughout central Alberta. A driving tour allows
visitors to see these "gems" of prairie architecture as well as experiencing life in rural communities.

This international initiative to celebrate the architectural heritage was brought to Alberta in the early 1990s
by the Heritage Community Foundation, a charitable trust with the mandate to link people with Heritage Community
Foundation through discovery and learning. The Foundation developed and maintains the Alberta Online Encyclopedia -
www.albertasource.ca of which the Alberta's Real Estate
Heritage website is an important part. Find out about Alberta's Architecture, historic building designation
as well as Doors Open events by visiting this website.

Historical Tours:

Beginning in the 1980s, Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism (now Alberta Culture and Community Spirit) produced a
series of walking and/or driving tour brochures for various communities throughout Alberta that provide information
about historic buildings and places. With the permission of Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, the Heritage
Community Foundation has drawn on these resources to create the Landmark Buildings and Places database. Booklets
used to date are as follows: